HB17-1302 Juvenile Sexting Crime

Bill Number: HB17-1302

Year: 2017

ACLU Position: Active Support

Sponsors: P. Lee/Y. Willett/R. Fields/R. Gardner

Description:

The bill creates the crime of posting private images by a juvenile.
The offense prohibits a juvenile from knowingly distributing, displaying,
or publishing, through digital or electronic means, a sexually explicit
image of himself or herself or of another juvenile to the view of more
than one other person or to the view of another person:
• Without the depicted juvenile’s consent; or

• When the recipient did not solicit or request to be supplied
with the image or images and suffered emotional distress;
or
• When the juvenile knew or should have known that the
depicted juvenile had a reasonable expectation that the
image would remain private.
The bill creates the crime of possessing private images by a
juvenile. The offense prohibits a juvenile from possessing a sexually
explicit image of another juvenile without the depicted juvenile’s consent
or after the depicted juvenile rescinds his or her consent. The bill states
it is not a violation of either offense if the person was coerced,
intimidated, or harassed into committing the offense.
A juvenile whose conduct satisfies either offense cannot be
charged with sexual exploitation of a child.
The bill creates an exception to the offense of sexual exploitation
of a child if the person is under 18 years of age and the child is at least 14
years of age or less than 4 years younger than the person unless the person
discloses publicly any sexually exploitative material that depicts the child
or distributes, displays, or publishes, with the intent to obtain a pecuniary
benefit from anyone, sexually exploitative material that depicts the child.
The bill states it is not a violation of sexual exploitation of a child if a
person under 18 was coerced, intimidated, or harassed into disclosing
publicly a sexually exploitative image.
The bill requires the school safety resource center to make
available a sexting curriculum for school districts to use.

Current Status:

Governor Signed (06/06/2017)Sent to the Governor (05/22/2017)Senate Third Reading Passed - No Amendments (05/04/2017)Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Judiciary (04/26/2017)House Second Reading Special Order - Passed with Amendments - Committee (04/25/2017)House Committee on Judiciary Witness Testimony and/or Committee Discussion Only (04/11/2017)Introduced In House - Assigned to Judiciary (03/28/2017)